1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to management systems and more specifically to a system and method for organizing enterprise performance data into discrete measurements whereby each measurement can be updated, viewed and reported over an electronic network.
2. Background of the Invention
Large enterprises such as corporations have a continuous need to, for example, manage large numbers of people and accurately track the progress of on-going or specific projects. To complicate matters, corporations are often geographically distributed, which precludes various employees from interacting with each other on a regular basis thereby making it difficult to update managers with status and progress information. Further, certain projects comprise a variety of sub-projects or different phases which makes it difficult for managers to accurately determine the progress of the overall project towards a predetermined goal.
While prior art management systems (computerized or manual) have attempted to aid in managing employees and projects, none has been capable of addressing the wide-ranging needs of field personnel, managers and corporate division directors, who each have differing needs and expectations from a management tool.
The present invention is a management system that centralizes the collection, dissemination and updating of specific performance characteristics, which are referred to herein as xe2x80x9cmeasurements.xe2x80x9d In accordance with the present invention, each measurement describes a specific performance characteristic related to, for example, different parts of business operations, e.g., sales, marketing, research, development, manufacturing, etc. Thus, each measurement preferably includes a measurement description, measurement value and a date indicative of the measurement""s most recent update. A measurement may represent a quantitative characteristic (e.g., a revenue figure or number of calls answered), a qualitative (e.g., quality of servicexe2x80x94high, medium, low) or a combination characteristic. Since the management system of the present invention preferably is implemented over an electronic network, employees, managers, and even outside contractors can easily and efficiently access the management tools provided by the present invention.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, individual measurements are grouped into xe2x80x9cpackages.xe2x80x9d A package of measurements preferably includes measurements related by project, organization or any other desired grouping. When a package is selected, all of the measurements associated with that package can be viewed simultaneously. Under some circumstances, a package may contain only a single measurement. However, a package typically comprises several measurements. Significantly, in accordance with the present invention, packages can be grouped together in a predetermined way by a system administrator and can also be custom-created. Additionally, any package can be shared among multiple users thereby reducing the amount of memory required for the overall system and making the sharing of information more simple.
Further, measurement values can be updated (by personnel having the necessary authority) on a semi-annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly, or even daily basis. The period of time between updates is referred to as the frequency of the measurement. Also, preferably associated with each measurement is default graphing information including, for example, a y-axis title, graph type, and 2nd standard deviation control limits, whereby a graphical representation of the measurement can be quickly generated and useful information displayed for a user.
Also, a single target or multiple targets may be associated with measurements. A target is a value or range of values that identifies performance as xe2x80x9cgoodxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cbad.xe2x80x9d A target preferably is xe2x80x9cdirectional.xe2x80x9d That is, a target can be either increasing, meaning that a higher measurement value is better than a lower one, or decreasing, meaning that a lower measurement value is better than a higher one. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, a value of a measurement for which a target has been assigned is color-coded to indicate the status of the measurement value with respect to the target value. Accordingly, a manager, for example, need not read specific quantitative or qualitative values, but need only glance at a displayed listing of measurements to obtain a high level indication of a measurement""s value.
In addition to color-coding, an indicator, e.g., an up or down arrow, preferably is also associated with each target and is displayed along with the target when the measurement is displayed for a user. The up or down arrow alerts the user that the target is associated with a measurement for which an increasing value is desirable (an up arrow) or for which a decreasing value is desirable (a down arrow).
The present invention also is operable with non-series performance characteristics (non-series measurements) or series performance characteristics (series measurements). A non-series, or stand-alone, measurement represents a single characteristic or event, e.g., the number of hours worked by a group of employees. On the other hand, in a series measurement, the measurement may be a general measure of some item that contains a series of characteristics or events that might describe the measurement in detail. In accordance with the present invention, each series item is assigned a value. For example, a measurement of xe2x80x9cwidgets produced per dayxe2x80x9d might contain a single series for each of 12 types of widgets. However, instead of always displaying all 12 separate measurements (one for each widget type), the present invention preferably displays a single measurement which is chosen as a representative measurement. Preferably, the chosen measurement is indicative of the overall performance of the related measurements. A target value preferably is also associated with the representative measurement.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for monitoring and analyzing measurements.
It is also an object of the present invention to group measurements in packages which can viewed simultaneously by a user. Measurement packages preferably can also be shared among a plurality of users.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a management system that operates over a network whereby users can be geographically distributed.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a management tool that includes graphing capabilities wherein each measurement has default graphing settings.
It is still further an object of the present invention to provide a management system, method or tool that associates targets with individual measurements.
It is still further an object of the present invention to provide a color-coding scheme and/or indicators that permit a user to learn the status of one or more measurements without having to read actual measurement values.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a management system or tool that accommodates measurements comprising multiple series.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent upon a reading of the detailed description of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.